Ever since I mentioned going an Asian route in my Garbage Soup post, I've been thinking about it constantly so I decided to finally go ahead and do it tonight.
If you're a fan of Thai food, then surely you've partaken in the pleasure-sensation that is Tom Kha soup. Maybe you find the concept of preparing a coconut chicken soup to be intimidating, but there's a really easy way to do it. It's not exactly Tom Kha - that entails a couple of more exotic ingredients like lemon grass and galangal that is not readily found in your typical Texas neighborhood grocery store - but this is an easy method that is just as satisfying in its simplicity.
Basically, what you want to do is make a chicken broth based soup. Add coconut milk and ginger. The end.
If you're a fan of Thai food, then surely you've partaken in the pleasure-sensation that is Tom Kha soup. Maybe you find the concept of preparing a coconut chicken soup to be intimidating, but there's a really easy way to do it. It's not exactly Tom Kha - that entails a couple of more exotic ingredients like lemon grass and galangal that is not readily found in your typical Texas neighborhood grocery store - but this is an easy method that is just as satisfying in its simplicity.
Basically, what you want to do is make a chicken broth based soup. Add coconut milk and ginger. The end.
When all else fails, start with some sliced onions sauteing in a pan with olive oil. Warning: the smell resulting from this very basic first step will make you want to eat your own face. Especially if you add garlic into the mix, which I did but just forgot to mention. Anyway, remain steadfast and resist the urge. I chose to make this soup vegetarian, but if you were to add a protein, like chicken (organic and cage-free please! Less sad-tasting) or shrimp, you would want to add that in now so it can cook in the oil. Oh wait! Chicken, add now. Shrimp, add at the end otherwise you'll over cook them. Doy. Or maybe do tofu! Use firm.
I was feeling particularly lazy and had little desire to chop up any vegetables beyond the onions, so I added about a cup of frozen mixed veggies (carrots, peas, corn and green beans). Continue sauteing until the frozen veggies are cooked. Or at least not frozen anymore. I think I also added some red pepper flakes at this point.
More capricious adding. This time, about a half cup of rice. I thought about adding the last bundle of soba noodles in my pantry, but decided to save that for something else instead. Salt and pepper, too. Oh, and I added about a half teaspoon of a chopped ginger. That's important. A lot of recipes will just have you throw in a couple pieces of sliced ginger, but I happened to already have some chopped ginger on hand. I think there's some benefit to cooking the rice in the flavor components for a short bit before adding the liquid? Is there? Whatever, it doesn't hurt. But for you rice novices, this is not how you cook rice for real. Rice needs liquid. And lots of it.
Enter: chicken stock. Like last time, a carton. What is that, a quart? I don't even know. 32 ounces? Whatever, no big deal. Honestly, I only wanted to use like half the carton, but - and this happened last time as well - when I went to tear back the foil seal on the spout, the loose bit just tore off without actually opening the seal. WTF, chicken-stock-carton-manufacturers? Someone needs to look into that. I mean, the problem can't possibly be user malfunction. Anyway, so I had to tear into the box with a pair of scissors which rendered the spout's resealing capability totally pointless. So I dumped in the whole box. Good story.
At this point, I added two big handfuls of baby spinach. My original plan was to use sliced button mushrooms, but when I went to get them out of the fridge, they were old and soggy. Sad face. But spinach is a fine substitute. Happy face!
And, finally, a can of coconut milk. I think for a soup such as this, light coconut milk is fine. I chose full phat coconut milk. Stir and let continue cooking until the rice is fully cooked. Ten minutes should be fine. But if you want to cook it longer to err on the safe side, it won't hurt at all. Plus, I want to say that the flavors will meld together better if you do that, but I just pulled that out of my ass. You can, however, use this opportunity to taste the broth and add things to your liking - more garlic, salt, pepper, etc. More ideas: lime juice, chopped chiles or cayenne pepper, soy sauce, fish sauce, egg(!).
Chomp. Or actually, slurp.
* * *
I have had these two bananas sitting on our kitchen counter for the past week and, with each passing day, they are getting more and more pathetic and near-death looking. I really felt the need to do something with them, since the last time (last...three times) this happened, I ended up just tossing a couple rotten bananas into the garbage. BUT I was also not in the mood to find and follow a recipe (and I've heard that it is in baking that you have to be really precise in your measurements and ingredients...), so I decided to just throw caution to the wind and improvise a banana cake bread.
Ten seconds away from being tossed in the garbage can.
What I tossed into a bowl and mixed around:
- 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup of sugar
- one egg
- a pinch of baking soda
- sliced almonds and walnuts
- 1/3 one avocado (I know! I figured it would do the same thing that butter was supposed to do... Plus, it was also in danger of rotting to death in my refrigerator.)
- pinch of salt
- mushed bananas
Well, at least it resembles a batter.
After baking in the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, this is what it looked like.
I ate a slice and realized that this was not destined to come out as a cake. It rose some in the baking process, but not much and it was chewier and denser. Also, it had a subtle sweetness to it that made me like it more as a breakfast bread/bar thing. And then I decided I was curious to see what happened to it when I sliced it up and stuck it back in the oven a little longer. So I cranked the oven up to 450 and put them in for another 15 minutes. The pieces got more golden on top, so that was nice. But then I decided to go in a different direction and lowered the oven temperature to 265 degrees and put it back in for another 20 minutes-ish. They didn't dry out as I was secretly hoping (I blame the avocado...and maybe the lack of butter. Again, I am pulling that out of my butt. I have no idea what I'm talking about.) they would so that I could say that I magically made some improvised biscotti. But in the end, what I got was a really nice, chewy and filling batch of banana bread that would be perfect for a breakfast on the go. So there you go. Not all baking experiments have to be a disaster!
Is it breakfast yet?
But I still totally need dessert. Forbidden root beer float, here I come!
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